“If I ask you,
“What do you want out of life?”
and you say something like,
“I want to be happy
and have a great family
and a job I like,”
it’s so ubiquitous
that it doesn’t even mean anything.

A more interesting question,
a question that perhaps
you’ve never considered before,
is what pain do you want in your life?
What are you willing to struggle for?
Because that seems to be
a greater determinant
of how our lives turn out.”

There’s a rumor
going around
the Romance Novel Industry
that Amazon,
our biggest reseller,
no long price matches
to other booksellers (resellers).

The issue with this
is…
Amazon doesn’t allow
eBooks to be listed
for less than 99 cents.
If a writer (business)
wants to run a free promotion,
she has to list the eBook for free
at other booksellers
and ask Amazon to price match.

Which rumors are saying
is no longer possible.

Except it is possible.
I asked Amazon to price match
one of my short stories
(sample products)
and they did it immediately.

If it pertains to your business,
go directly to the source.
Don’t rely on rumors.

When my pen name
is criticized,
I tell myself
readers (customers) are not really criticizing me
because they don’t know
anything about me.
They don’t even know
my real name.

The pen name puts some distance
between my products
and myself.

This is one reason
why I caution entrepreneurs
about naming businesses
after themselves.
An attack on the business
might feel like
an attack on yourself.
It is more challenging to react
calmly, professionally
to that.

They engineer the product itself
to be worth talking about.
They create a virtuous cycle
where the product works better
for existing users
when their friends are also using it,
or a cultural imperative
where users feel better
when they recommend it.

They choose their seed market carefully.
They focus on groups
that are not only easy to reach,
but important to reach.
This might be a tightly-knit group
(like Harvard)
or a group that shares
a similar demographic
(like the early readers
of Fast Company)
or a group that’s itching to take action…

They’re hyper-aware of the MCM
and know whether or not
they have the time
and the budget
to reach it.”

Know your minimum critical mass
and know whether or not
that is achievable for your product/service.